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A Daily Genesis

Genesis 30:40-43

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 30:40a . . And Jacob culled the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban;[/B]

That trick was expected to have the same effect as looking at striped rods.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†. [/COLOR]Gen 30:40b-43 . . and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock. Moreover, it came about whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, that Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the water troughs, so that they might mate by the rods; but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.[/B]

Jacob's second strategy was to divide Laban's herd into two groups: the best ones by themselves, and the inferior ones by themselves, so that he had better control over the breeding process to his own advantage. Normally, Jacob's husbandry tricks would have worked more to Laban's advantage than Jacob's because statistically, the majority of the lambs born would have been Laban's had not God intervened.

Apparently Jacob's strategy was so successful that he was able to invest in other kinds of capital too; viz: slaves, camels, and donkeys. You know what? Jacob's troupe was beginning to look like that of a sheik; and before long; he's going to start acting like one too. The worm is beginning to turn.